"Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
...the fortune of us that are the moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being govern'd, as the sea is, by the moon" [Henry IV, I.ii.31-33]
HISTORY NEVER REPEATS ITSELF, BUT IT OFTEN RHYMES
"There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America." Otto von Bismarck

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Sunday, December 06, 2009

Politics Trumps Policy on Health Care for Dems

John Fund at the WSJ has a nice little piece on the Dems' obsession with getting ANY healthcare bill passed, but preferably one with a public option. Fund notes:

...many [Dems] in the trenches are uneasy about the sprawling, complex bill they privately acknowledge has no bipartisan support, doesn't seriously tackle soaring costs and will increase insurance premiums. That may explain Majority Leader Harry Reid's haste—he has ordered a rare Sunday session this weekend to hurry up the debate. Public support for the bill averages only 39.2% backing in all polls compiled by Pollster.com.

But Dems who vote do care about the health care bill and polls show that in 2010, a lot of Dem Coingresscritters & especially Harry Reid might have their political careers shortened by an avalanche of Republican voters, who besides paying taxes are p-o'd:

That fear is backed up by a new poll taken for the Daily Kos, the left-wing Web site: 81% of self-described Republicans say they are certain or likely to vote in 2010 compared to 65% of independent voters and only 56% of Democrats. "Democrats have simply not been given enough of a reason to come out and vote yet," writes liberal blogger David Dayen. "The left is waiting for that long-promised 'change' they can believe in."

So in the eyes of a lot of borderline Dems who really think the colossal dead-tree dump of several thousand pages is policy gone terribly wrong don't want to lose their offices, and as a long shot, are credulous enuf to believe that the liberal base will rescue them if they pass the policy poisonous cup to all American citizens, while themselves retaining a gold-plated health benefits program of CEO Fortune 500 quality---no waiting in doctors' offices for the lawyers and lifetime career politicians the Dems recruit to represent them in Congress!

Congress is so gerrymandered and sliced/diced so that only a few swing districts will usually turn even if off-year elections. But if the Dems in Congress really think that the 20% self-professed liberals in the USA are going to re-elect them over the 35% conservative and the over-40% self-proclaimed independents---of which I am one---then I think they are completely offbase and need a little time on K Street to plot how to get back into office.

National Journal reports [Harry Reid] included a public option in the bill in part because his staff felt he "could get the liberal left off his back for a while."

Other Democrats are in a similar bind. One Senate Democrat thinks the bill is bad policy. But last month that same senator joined with all of his fellow Democrats to bring the bill to the floor. The party leadership has made it clear that anyone who votes against health care will have a difficult time passing their own bills in the future.

So the Senate death march continues. Many Democrats have grave misgivings about making the bill a top priority given the economy. But in the age of bloodthirsty partisan bloggers they dare not be fully candid. They can only hope their march doesn't lead them right over the edge of a political cliff next November.

As certifiablly chronic victims of lemming-like groupthink, the Dems' probabilities of a rock plunge range from slim to none and slim just left town.

UPDATE:

Just when you thought that Harry Reid just couldn't get any more stupid than his statement in 2007 that "the war is lost," combining ignorance and treason in a four-word expression of Demo-rat feckless incompetence as the Surge crested to an unexpected VICTORY which the treason-left of Reid/Pelosi still cannot acknowledge, Reid yesterday PLAYED THE RACE CARD WRONGLY as he accused Republicans of having been the Party which had supported slavery during the Civil War. Next thing you know, Reid will anoint Abe Lincoln as the greatest Demo-rat POTUS. Treason and ignorance make a hilarious combination!

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About Me

"''I have drunk ale from the Country of the Young And weep because I know all things now: I have been a hazel-tree, and they hung The Pilot Star and the Crooked Plough
Among my leaves in times out of mind....' Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments...the fortune of us that are the moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being govern'd, as the sea is, by the moon."
Twenty-and-eight the phases of the moon, The full and the moon’s dark and all the crescents, Twenty-and-eight, and yet but six-and-twenty The cradles that a man must needs be rocked in: For there’s no human life at the full or the dark. From the first crescent to the half, the dream But summons to adventure and the man Is always happy like a bird or a beast; But while the moon is rounding towards the full He follows whatever whim’s most difficult...An aged man is but a paltry thing,A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress....Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.